Biggest UFC Fight of All Time, UFC Rio: Silva vs GSP in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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UFC Rio is the perfect setting for the potential Silva-GSP fight that everyone has been talking about. Even Lorenzo Fertitta, Co-Owner of the UFC, said, “That’s probably the one fight I really want to see the most.” Fertitta said this prior to the GSP-Koscheck fight so he also added that GSP has to get past Koscheck (which he did with a win by unanimous decision) and Anderson Silva has to beat Vitor Belfort. Fertitta said, “If that happens, there’s a really good likelihood that we could see that fight – probably sometime next summer.” Anderson Silva has not lost a UFC fight since 2006 so it likely that he will continue his streak against Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 in February.

With all the talk about this epic super-fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre we started to think about if this fight does in fact get scheduled, where and when will this fight go down. There is one clear choice, UFC Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 27th 2011, especially since Fertitta hinted that if Silva and St-Pierre both won their upcoming fights then the super-fight would likely happen next summer. There really is no better location than Rio for this fight to be held. Brazil has a long history of mixed martial arts and UFC Rio will be the first UFC event in Brazil since UFC Brazil in 1998 and the first since Zuffa purchased the UFC. Aside from Brazil’s long history of MMA, Brazil is also Anderson Silva’s home country and there is a recent trend of the UFC scheduling fights where one of the fighters in the main event gets to fight in their home country; UFC 124 was fought in Canada and GSP is from Canada; UFC 120 was fought in England and Michael Bisbing is from England.

We have been tracking UFC ticket prices since UFC 119 and have seen an increased demand on the secondary market for the most recent UFC events. If this fight gets scheduled for UFC Rio, based on SeatGeek internal estimates, tickets will sell for an average of approximately $325 per ticket on the secondary market. At $325 per ticket, the Silva-GSP fight will be around $75 more expensive per ticket than any of the UFC fights that we have data on.

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UFC Rio Commentary

Commentary on the potential Silva-GSP fight courtesy of Zak Woods. Zak is an editor and MMA contributor for SB Nation including the MMA blog Watch Kalib Run. You can follow him on Twitter @ZakWMMA.

“A potential mega-fight between UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva would be a watershed moment for the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts as a whole. While there have been mega-fights before, Fedor vs. “Cro Cop”, St. Pierre vs. Penn II, Liddell vs. Jackson II, Lesnar vs. Mir II all come to mind. But Silva vs. St. Pierre would mark the first time that the consensus #1 and #2 pound-for-pound fighters in the world would meet in the cage. Considering the rarity and historical relevance of such a fight, St. Pierre vs. Silva would most certainly have a chance of surpassing UFC 100’s estimated 1.6 million pay-per view buys. Yes, St. Pierre vs. Silva has the potential to be the biggest MMA fight of all time.”

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